The World Bank and International Monetary Fund as Mechanisms of Western Domination: Historical and Contemporary Analysis
Mohamed Bani Salamah,Political Science Department,Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to identify the role of the WB and the IMF in serving the goals of Western states in general and the US in particular since the creation of those institutions at the end of WW II. The study used the historical approach and the descriptive analytical approach based on the premise that despite all the rhetoric about development and the alleviation of poverty, the central function of the WB and the IMF has been to draw all the world countries tightly into a capitalist world economy dominated by Western states.The study results revealed the success of the Western states led by the United States in using those institutions to serve the political goals of western states, the rationale for development assistance over decades has been checking the advance of communism. Both institutions were invaluable in winning the Cold War. Also, the study results revealed that over the past seventy years or so, the WB and the IMF have steadily gained power and influence, becoming the only institutions that decided which countries will receive international loans. This status gives the WB and IMF the power to enforce economic and political policies favored to the West. For many Third world countries, this goes back to colonial times.
Keywords: Development, World Bank, The International Monetary Fund, Cold War, Imperialism.